My objective as a postdoctoral fellow within the Perinatal Imaging Partnership is to reconcile neural indicators of body maps, such as the somatosensory mismatch negativity and social body fNIRS, with behavioral profiles of infant spontaneous movement and grasping. Across levels of organization from cellular to organism, systems adjust their actions and activity utilizing sensory-driven feedback (Delafield-Butt & Gangopadhyay, 2013; Grillner, 2003). In the womb, anticipatory trajectories of fetal spontaneous movements appear to reflect a 'body map', or an awareness of bodily position, physical arrangement of facial features, joints and overall body morphology by the third trimester (Zoia et al., 2007). My interest lies in allostatic stress in relation to infant's awareness of facial features which serve as sensory organs (mouth, eyes, etc.). Importantly, infant's own body map may provide the foundation for social interaction (Gallagher & Meltzoff, 1996).
